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New Type of Religiosity 1. The Reformation radiating from Germany hosted a confluence of social, political, and religious developments. In terms of religion, the various motifs were focused through scriptural principles, and a teaching on justification. The criticism of the Church by that Church itself led to a collapse of the medieval concept of a unitary Christianity, the Corpus Christianum. Into its place stepped the co-existing confessional churches. In the Protestant regional churches,…

The Person 1. Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, at Eisleben, in Saxony, Germany. In 1505, to fulfill a private vow that he had made in acute fear of death and the Last Judgment, he entered the monastery of Augustinian hermits in Erfurt. His experience of failing to attain a salvific relationship to God even as a monk led him to a gradual change of attitude and the ‘reformatory turn’ that he later stylized in his self-interpretation as a sudden experience of breakthrough and awakening. O…

In the late Middle Ages, the notion of a “spark of conscience” found, for example, in the work of the Latin church father Jerome, was developed productively into th…

The conciliarist controversies of the late Middle Ages over the supremacy of the pope or a council within the church made the question of an authoritative basis for ecclesiastical doctrinal decisions outside the human institutions of the church increasingly controversial. Drawing on the thought of William of Ockham, theologians developed concepts that emphasized the questionable nature of decisions by the papacy and councils (Council [ecclesiastical]), while advocating appeal to the Bible to res…

1. Christian 1.1. Late Middle Ages, Reformation, and ConfessionalizationThe parochial structure of the church had been the norm since the Carolingian period (i.e. the association of one’s place of residence with membership in an ecclesiastical congregation). In the late Middle Ages, there developed a strong sense – especially in urban areas – of the congregation as a social nexus politically as well as religiously, so that in this context we can even speak of a  corpus Christianum (“Christian body”) in microcosm [3]. This self-conception, both communal and parochial, g…

1. Concepts of the DevilThe Devil in the early modern period had a double role as an opponent of God in the narrative of salvation and as a negative force whose effects were tangible in the everyday world. The key factor in the shaping of belief in the Devil was how this concept of opposition worked in relation to the omnipotence of God.Concern for this issue in early modern reflection is well exemplified in the works of Martin Luther.…

Insbes. die konziliaristischen Streitigkeiten des späten MA um die Frage der Oberhoheit von Papst oder Konzil in der Kirche hatten die Frage nach einer autoritativen Grundlage für kirchl. Lehrentscheidungen jenseits der menschlich-kirchl. Institutionen immer virulenter gemacht. Im Rückgriff auf das Denken Wilhelms von Ockham wurden Konzepte entwickelt, die die Fraglichkeit der Entscheidungen von Papsttum und Konzil betonten und den Bezug auf die Bibel zur Regulierung der Konflikte propagierten. Damit verband sich ein immer stärkeres Insistieren auf einer wörtlichen Lektüre der Bibel als der Heiligen Schrift, jedenfalls dort, wo es um die Lösung dogmatischer Sachfragen ging. Ein Sch. im eigentlichen Sinne, d. h. die fundamentaltheologische Auffassung, dass allein die Schrift (lat. sola scriptura) Maßstab für alle christl. Lehre sein dürfe und die bestehende kirchl. Lehre entsprechend kritisch an diesem Maßstab zu messen sei, wurde in der …

1. Christliche 1.1. Spätmittelalter, Reformation und KonfessionalisierungAusgehend von der seit der Karolingerzeit gültigen parochialen Struktur der Kirche (d. h. der Zuordnung von Wohnsitz und kirchlicher G.-Zugehörigkeit) entwickelte sich im späten MA ein starkes Bewusstsein insbes. der städtischen G. als sozialer Zusammenhang in politischer wie religiöser Hinsicht, so dass man im Blick hierauf sogar von einem corpus Christianum (»christl. Körperschaft«) im Kleinen sprechen kann [3]. Aus diesem zugleich kommunalen und parochialen Selbstbewusstsein entwic…

Der G.-Begriff wurde im späten MA in Fortführung der Vorstellung eines G.-Funkens u. a. bei dem lat. Kirchenvater Hieronymus mit der mystischen Vorstellung vom Seelenfünklein produktiv weiterentwickelt. Für die Formierung des nzl. G.-Begriffs war die zunehmend wachsende Kluft zwischen individuellen Überzeugungen und überindividuellen Bindungen an gesellschaftliche Normen und an staatliches Recht entscheidend – eine Kluft, die zuerst in der Religionsfrage fassbar wurde. Die reformatorische TheologieMartin Luthers wurde von dem evang. Theologen Karl Holl geradezu al…

1. TeufelsvorstellungenDer Teufel hatte in der Frühen Nz. eine Bedeutung sowohl als heilsgeschichtlicher Gegenspieler Gottes wie auch als negative Wirkmacht, deren Kraft unmittelbar in dieser Welt spürbar war. Für die Ausgestaltung des T. blieb entscheidend, wie sich diese reale Gegenüberstellung mit Gottes Allmacht vertrug.Insbes. im Werk Martin Luthers zeigt sich dieses Bemühen paradigmatisch für die nzl. Reflexion: Zum einen wird im anthropologisch zugespitzten Bild der Mensch als Reittier Gottes einerseits, des Teufels andererseits verstanden, wobei sich …

[English Version] Sudermann,  Daniel (1550 Lüttich – nach 1630 Straßburg). Einer kath. Familie entstammend, kam S. früh in Berührung mit Calvinismus, Luthertum und Täufertum. Nach Tätigkeiten als Hofmeister war er ab 1585 am Straßburger Bruderhof als Erzieher von Adeligen tätig. Schon zuvor war er in Kontakt mit den Ideen K.v. Schwenckfelds gekommen, aus dessen Schriften er seit 1584 publizierte. Seine eigene Hinwendung zu Schwenckfelds Lehre datiert er konversionsartig auf das Jahr 1594. Eine Verb…

[German Version] (Jan 9/10, 1502, Münster? – after 1570). Gifted as a visionary from his youth, Niclaes moved from Amsterdam to Emden after his calling as a prophet in 1540. He expanded late medieval mystical concepts into a prophetic-chiliastic spiritualism. Against a background of pantheistic ontology, he saw himself as the reincarnation of Christ. Through his missionary journeys, the “Family of Love” (Familists) spread, through their experience of the Spirit transcend-¶ ing the bounds of confession and religion; this was not rightly understood in the many accusa…

[German Version] (Dec 26, 1643, Wees – Oct 31, 1713, Leiden). After studying in Utrecht and Leiden ( J. Cocceius), in 1666 Til became pastor of the Reformed church in Huisduinen. After other positions, he came to Dordrecht in 1683, where the next year he was also appointed to a chair at the Schola Illustris. In 1702 he moved to Leiden. The focus of his work was scholarly philological exegesis of the Old Testament prophets. He modified the covenant theology he learned from Cocceius by including Cartesian (R. Descartes) elements, paving the way for the early Enlightenment by giving theologia n…

[German Version] (c. 910–992), reforming abbot of Montier-en-Der (from 967/68) and St. Bénigne (c. 982–985). Adso composed lives of various saints and (between 949 and 954) an influential summary of the Antichrist tradition in biographical form. In it, Adso categorized the West Frankish Carolingians (to whom his patron Gerberga was related by marriage) as the heirs of Rome in God's plan of salvation. Volker Leppin Bibliography CCCM 45, 1976 R. Konrad, De ortu et tempore Antichristi, 1964.

[German Version] Biblia pauperum, was the name given to the Bible abbreviations for preaching purposes in the late Middle Ages. Technically “Bible of the Poor” denotes a specific, primarily pictorial work of monastic provenance. As far as it can be reconstructed, its earliest, originally anonymous exemplar was written in the southeastern German language area in…

[German Version] (Dec 25, 1756, Benevento – Apr 19, 1844, Rome) came from a noble family and was doctor of canon and civil law. In 1785 he was consecrated titular bishop of Damietta, and in the same year, without the recognition of the archbishop of Cologne, took office in the city as papal nuncio. Against episcopalism (II; Ems, Congress of), he vigorously represented the papal position. As nuncio in Lisbon (1794/1795–1802) he fought with equal vigor (having been made a cardinal in 1801) against P…

[German Version] Baroness de Stäel-Holstein (Apr 22, 1766, Paris – Jul 14, 1817, Paris). As an exile during the French Revolution, Mme. de Staël was the central figure of a European network of communication. Refracting the ideas of J.-J. Rousseau through the lens of early German Romanticism, she wrote in criticism of the social conventionality restricting women, and preached the perfecting of humanity in history. Volker Leppin Bibliography C. Blennerhassett, Madame de Staël, 1889 (Eng.).

[German Version] (1328, Kalkar – Dec 20, 1408, Cologne). Henry of Kalkar received the M.A. in Paris in 1357, and later the Bacc.theol. Renouncing already acquired benefices, he entered the Charterhouse of Cologne (Carthusians) in 1365. From 1368 to 1396, he held leading positions in charterhouses near Arnhem and Roermond, in Cologne, and near Strasbourg, while also officiating as visitor of his province from 1375 ¶ onward. In performing the spiritual dimension of these offices, he developed a devotional theology of monastic discipleship which aimed to achieve …

[German Version] The university founded in 1386 by Rupert I, Elector Palatine, was initially staffed by scholars forced out of Paris and Prague because of ecclesial and national opposition. The founding rector Marsilius of Inghen guided Heidelberg on the path of a moderate via moderna; from 1452, the via antiqua shared equal rights. The scholastic manner of instruction (Scholasticism) was supplemented after 1456 with the humanist (Humanism: III), but not profoundly altered. Brought to the Lutheran Reformation in 1558 by Ottheinrich (1556–1559)…

[German Version] (1550, Liège – after 1630, Straßburg [Strasbourg]). Though born into a Catholic family, Sudermann came into contact with Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Anabaptism early on. Having worked as a private tutor, after 1585 he served as an educator of the nobility at the Bruderhof in Straßburg. He had already come in contact with the ideas of K. v. Schwenckfeld, some of whose writings he began publishing in 1584. He dated his own attraction to Schwenckfeld’s teaching from a conversion expe…